Apple Mac cake - Happy Birthday Bertie

My father in law has just bought himself a new Mac computer and he loves it.  He even brought it all the way down to Brighton to show it off at his last visit and has an Apple sticker in his car window he's so pleased with it.  So I thought it would be a great craic to make his birthday cake this year in the shape of the Apple logo.  It would also give me a chance to try out carving a cake for the first time which is another skill I want to get under my belt.
 
It would have been great to make it an apple flavour cake as well, but I thought it was best to stick to a cake that would stand up to being shaped so I opted for a traditional madeira cake, but coffee flavoured as I knew that was Bertie's favourite. 
 
I started off making a 9 inch madeira cake and left it overnight to settle and firm up.  I used the recipe in my Home Guide To Cake Decorating and substituted the milk for Camp Coffee Essence (note there is the typo in this book and the quantities for plain flour and self raising flour are the wrong way round!).  The next day I levelled the top and cut into 3 horizontal layers, then rebuilt it again upside down - this way, what was the bottom of the cake makes a perfectly flat top level.  For each layer I brushed on a little sugar syrup spiked with coffee licquer for flavour and moistness before smoothing over a layer of coffee buttercream.
 
I made a paper template of the logo and used that as a guide to cut out the shape of the cake, using my trusty serrated knife:
 

 
I realised it wasn't really much of a test of my carving skills and it was pretty easy as all I had to do was cut a straight line down from the paper template.  I think the real challenge is when you do proper 3D carving to create shapes like cars - I'll have to push myself next time.
 
I covered the carved cake in a thin layer of buttercream, which was a bit trickier than with a regular round or square cake trying to get it smooth and even into the inward shapes:
 

 

Next was a layer of marzipan:

 

 
Then I brushed the marzipan with a little leftover coffee sugar syrup to make the final layer of sugarpaste stick.   After smoothing on the sugarpaste I brushed with silver metallic lustre dust (I used this one by Rainbow Dust).  I covered a cake drum with white sugarpaste ready for the cake to sit on top then it dawned on me that I hadn't actually thought of a way to transfer the cake onto the drum.  Usually I use a thin cake board under the cake so it's easy to lift, but this one was an irregular shape so I couldn't use one.  So I sent out a panicked cry to Melissa for some moral support, then using two palette knives I lifted the cake onto the board.  Luckily it landed in the right place and didn't crack any of the icing.  Phew!

 

So here's the final cake - Bertie got the joke and all agreed it tasted great so I was really pleased.

 

 

Dan's Mixing Desk Cake - my first commission

A couple of months ago my good friend Chris asked if she could commission a cake for her husband Dan's 40th birthday.  I was thrilled to be asked and naturally jumped at the challenge.  Initially Chris suggested a guitar cake, but when I thought it over I wasn't sure if would be able to make a guitar that would look realistic and not like a children's cake.  So I put my brain to work to see if I could come up with an idea that would both be impressive as a novelty cake plus something that I could realistically pull off and make to a high standard.  Continuing along the musical theme and knowing that Dan loves to mix his own music in his attic studio at home I thought a mixing desk cake would be perfect. 

Luckily Chris agreed and was able to secretly send me some photos of his mixing desk for me to base my design on.  Full details of how I made the cake will follow in another blog, but I was so pleased with how it turned out I thought I would give you a sneak preview of the final cake:

Mixing Desk Cake



And I am thrilled to report that Dan was really pleased with the cake and everyone at the party enjoyed it.  I even had 3 people come up to me and say that it was the best cake they have ever seen, so that was a really lovely compliment and a much needed confidence boost.  Can't wait to bake the next one now :o)

Watch this space for Mixing Desk: The making of...